Sociocognitive Foundations of Educational Measurement

"This volume is a conceptual and methodological tour de force for the field of educational measurement. In weaving together theory, research, and practice across the diverse disciplines of sociocognition, measurement, and assessment, Robert J. Mislevy has provided a vision for the future of educational measurement. This is the synthesis of ideas, examples, and implications that many of us have hoped he would write."

—James W. Pellegrino, Co-Director of the Learning Sciences Research Institute, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA

"Robert J. Mislevy—the founder of Evidence-Centered Design and the leading expert on assessment today—offers here a profound and definitive approach to assessment that finally comes fully to terms with the social and situated nature of learning and assessment."

—James Paul Gee, Mary Lou Fulton Professor of Literacy Studies and Regents’ Professor at Arizona State University, USA

"There are those who study the situated context of human learning and those who develop the empirical tools by which that learning is assessed. Were there ever two tribes more at odds? But now we have common ground. In Sociocognitive Foundations of Educational Measurement, distinguished psychometrician Robert J. Mislevy proves an expert guide in explaining commonalities between context and evaluation. From the use of familiar assessments like limited-response tests to next-generation gaming, his situated perspective has wide applications for wise use. Innovative and welcoming on every page, this is a phenomenal book for teachers, researchers, administrator, and policy makers."

—Norbert Elliot, Professor Emeritus of English, New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA

"Sociocognitive Foundations of Educational Measurement [is] a sweeping new volume from Robert Mislevy that defies genre conventions, as Mislevy himself has done over his remarkable career. Sociocognitive Foundations is the sort of book that seeks not just to contribute to ongoing conversations but to open up entirely new ones, and to give us the vocabulary and transdisciplinary conceptual schemes with which to have them. In particular, Mislevy’s volume addresses psychometric modeling, validity, philosophy of measurement, and (of course) sociocognitive theory, and while there are extant sources with more to say about each of these topics individually, we know of no other source that puts these fields into dialogue as vigorously as is done here."

—Psychometrika

"Mislevy has extensively articulated ways in which sociocultural insights can inform the definition of the targets of measurement, characterize threats to arguments for the interpretation and use of test scores, and provide means for better matching test methods and score interpretations with respect to differences among individuals. . . . Mislevy’s framework for measurement is comprehensive and boundary-pushing."

—Language Assessment Quarterly

"Robert Mislevy writes convincingly about ways in which measurement models can be in the service of claims about human cognition, inextricably embedded within social structures and life experiences. . . . It is essential reading for imagining and creating a different present and future of educational measurement."

—Journal of Educational Measurement